UW squanders early chances, falls to Minnesota Duluth, 1-0

Madison –The miscues made by Mike Eaves’ hockey team weren’t plentiful but ultimately they proved costly.

There were missed scoring chances early, including two shots that sailed wide of an open net by University of Wisconsin winger Tom Gorowsky and center Matt Thurber.

There was one costly turnover in the UW zone, which led to the only goal of the game tonight at the Kohl Center.

That turnover resulted in a third-period goal by junior winger Jordan Fulton as Minnesota Duluth recorded a 1-0 victory in front of a crowd of 15,237 and cost UW a spot in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings.

“There’s just no excuse for not winning this game,” Gorowsky said. “Our play wasn’t good enough.”

The loss by UW (14-11-3, 11-7-2), coupled with North Dakota’s 4-2 victory at St. Cloud State, allowed the Fighting Sioux (16-11-3, 11-6-3) to move past UW into second place.

The game was scoreless early in the final period when the Badgers failed to clear their zone and the Bulldogs (14-8-6, 8-7-5) pounced.

Duluth freshman center Jack Connolly gobbled up the loose puck and skated toward the right corner. He slid the puck through the slot to the far post to Fulton, who rammed it into the back of the net 4 minutes 32 seconds into the period.

“We just didn’t get a good bounce,” UW defenseman Ryan McDonagh said,” and they capitalized on it.”

UW outshot Duluth, 33-19, but Bulldogs’ goaltender Alex Stalock was up to the challenge after dropping a 3-1 decision Friday night.

“There were opportunities for us to score early in the game,” center Blake Geoffrion said. “And we just couldn’t get one in the net tonight.”

Stalock made several key stops, the last coming with five seconds left when he made a pad save of a blast from defenseman Cody Goloubef.

“We had chances and we didn’t score,” Eaves said. “We didn’t give up a lot…You have to give Duluth credit, too.

“Let’s not forget Stalock is a pretty good goaltender. They played hard. They block shots. We just couldn’t find a way to solve the riddle tonight.”

The Badgers could have been ahead by at least 1-0 in the first period if both Gorowsky and Thurber hadn’t missed open nets.

Gorowsky’s miss stood out. He anticipated a clearing pass by Stalock, knocked the puck down in the slot but then but fired wide right from the hash marks.

“I had all the time in the world,” Gorowsky said. “I just wasn’t focused or for whatever reason I missed the net. I missed the net last night. I don’t know what was going on with me this weekend.

“Was it the reason we lost the game? No. But we would have been up, 1-0, early on. It’s extremely frustrating. It hurt the team.”